Pentagon can't explain 'missile' off California

This video frame grab provided by KCBS/KCAL shows what could be a missile launched off the California coast, Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. The Defense Department said Tuesday it was trying to determine if a missile was launched Monday off the coast of Southern California and, if so, who might have fired it

/ AP

This video frame grab provided by KCBS/KCAL shows what could be a missile launched off the California coast, Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. The Defense Department said Tuesday it was trying to determine if a missile was launched Monday off the coast of Southern California and, if so, who might have fired it. Spokesmen for the Navy, Air Force, and other military organizations said they were looking into a video posted on the CBS News website that shows an object shooting across the sky and leaving a large contrail, or vapor trail, over the Pacific Ocean. (AP Photo/KCBS/KCAL)

This video frame grab provided by KCBS/KCAL shows what could be a missile launched off the California coast, Monday, Nov. 8, 2010. The Defense Department said Tuesday it was trying to determine if a missile was launched Monday off the coast of Southern California and, if so, who might have fired it. Spokesmen for the Navy, Air Force, and other military organizations said they were looking into a video posted on the CBS News website that shows an object shooting across the sky and leaving a large contrail, or vapor trail, over the Pacific Ocean. (AP Photo/KCBS/KCAL) (/ AP)

PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press

The Pentagon said Tuesday it did not know what created a vapor trail that crossed the skies off the Southern California coast and resembled a missile launch.

Video posted on the CBS News website shows an object flying through the evening sky Monday that left a large contrail, or vapor trail. A news helicopter owned by KCBS, a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, shot the video.

Pentagon officials were stumped by the event. "Nobody within the Department of Defense that we've reached out to has been able to explain what this contrail is, where it came from," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said.

While the vapor cloud captured on video resembled that created by a rocket in flight, military officials said they didn't know of any launches in the area.

Lapan said that "all indications" were that the Defense Department was not involved with the object.

One expert called it an optical illusion. "It's an airplane that is heading toward the camera and the contrail is illuminated by the setting sun," said John Pike, director of the U.S.-based security analyst group globalsecurity.org.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, issued a statement jointly with the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, saying that the contrail was not the result of a foreign military launching a missile. It provided no details.

"We can confirm that there is no threat to our nation," the statement said. "We will provide more information as it becomes available."

NORTHCOM is the U.S. defense command and NORAD is a U.S.-Canadian organization charged with protecting the U.S. from the threat of missiles or hostile aircraft.

Pike said the object could not have been a rocket because it appeared to alter its course.

"The local station chopped up the video and so it's hard to watch it continuously," Pike said. "But at one place you can see it has changed course - rockets don't do that."

Pike said he didn't understand why the military had not recognized the contrail of an aircraft. "The Air Force must ... understand how contrails are formed," he said. "Why they can't get some major out to belabor the obvious, I don't know."

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Associated Press writers Jeff Wilson and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.